34 FSREST commissioner's REPORT. 



far better measured iu each case, but so far as an average is of use 

 it may be obtained from these figures. These logs contain long and 

 short, large and small, with even a few top logs for variety, and 

 the average taper of them all is an inch in six and one-half feet. 

 As affecting the reliability of this figure, it should be said that in 

 calipering the butt of the logs care was taken to measure above 

 the swell frequently found, and to avoid any marked irregularity. 



It is generally known that trees taper faster in the upper portion 

 of llu'ir length than near the ground. Long trunks that have for 

 many 3'ears been clear of limbs are sometimes nearly cylindrical, 

 while in the same trees up among the live limbs a very quick taper 

 may be found. For logs topped off at about the lower point of 

 the crown, an average taper of an inch in eight feet would be near 

 tlie fart Assurance of this is given hy the studies of Mr. Turner 

 Huswell of Skowhegan, 1000 logs cut iu the way mentioned were 

 measured under his direction, and the figures obtained footed up to 

 that eftVct A timber tree is very nearly represented by a cone of 

 true tai^er set on a shaft of slower taper, the division line between 

 the two coming as a rule near the lower limbs of the tree. 



These figures also define our ideas as to the longevity of spruce. 

 Out of 10.50 trees it is sen that fourteen in fiumber, or thirteen 

 pt^r cent, are over 300 years of age. Of these only one was over 

 312 years, that being a tree of only thirteen and one-half inches 

 butt diameter showing 363 rings. The very oldest spruce log that 

 in tne course of my field work I have come across showed 372 

 rings in the butt. This was a very large tree, twenty-eight inches 

 through and ninety seven feet high, containing in its central stem 

 about 2i cubic feet. It was grown in a little sheltered valley in 

 the mountains of Kilkenny. N. H Since the three feet of s ump 

 o this tree probably represented as much as twenty-eight years of 

 its early height growth. 1 can fairly name as the age of the oldest 

 spruce 1 have ever examined 400 years This tree had a long full 

 crown, and was still growing in diameter, though only an inch in 

 thirty years. Sixty-five feet of the tree was cut off for a log. Of 

 this tbe butt was sound and good. At the top, however, the wood 

 inside the sap was becoming brown and soft. 



This brings up another matter worthy of attention. Old age in 

 a tri e shows itsi If naturally in tbe crown The leaves are its 

 active organs and when Iheir activity slackens, and the crown is 

 thin and dull, then old age is made apparent. Some explorers say 



